Shell-Haus

The Shell-Haus on the Landwehr Canal in Berlin's Tiergarten district is an architectural highlight of the Weimar Republic. Designed by Emil Fahrenkamp, the steel-frame building was constructed between 1930 and 1932 for the Rhenania-Ossag Mineralölwerke AG, a mineral oil company, and is considered one of the most significant office buildings of its era. Stylistically assigned to the New Objectivity movement, the building impresses with its striking facade, which consists of vertical wave patterns and strictly horizontal bands of windows. The outer shell is clad in slabs of Roman travertine, lending the structure a special dignity. As a technical novelty, air slots beneath the sidewalks were used to keep vibrations from street traffic away from the building.

The history of the building is closely tied to German administrative history. After its completion, it served as the headquarters of the naval command from 1934, while during World War II a field hospital was housed in its deep basement. After the war, the building was used by Bewag, the Berlin electric utility, before it underwent an extensive renovation in the 1990s, during which the travertine slabs were replaced, among other work. Today, the landmark-protected building has housed parts of the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Defense since 2012. You can admire the imposing building from the outside; it stands right at the corner of Stauffenbergstraße and is not far from the Kulturforum. It stands as a witness to Berlin's modern architectural history and is an integral part of the city's waterside landscape.